Mike Berman's Random Thoughts and Opinions

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Repair Garbage Disposal Hum

My garbage disposal stopped turning. It was just making a faint humming sound.

To fix it, I took a 1/4" allen wrench and inserted it into the hole at the bottom of the unit (under the sink). I turned the wrench (either direction). It was hard to turn at first, then easy. It seems to have either unstuck the turning mechanism, or cleared whatever was stuck in there.

Monday, November 21, 2011

Microsoft Outlook Problem

I am running Microsoft Outlook 2007 on Windows XP.

I started getting the error message this morning: "Microsoft Office Outlook has encountered a problem and needs to close". Every time I re-started Outlook, I got the same message. So Outlook was completely un-usable.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

The Truth

I saw a car at a stoplight today. It was one of these cars that is completely covered with a fancy paint job as an advertisement. In this case it was for "The Truth" 730 AM; a local conservative talk radio station.

I found a number of amusing things about this, but first and foremost is the concept of opinion radio that calls itself "The Truth", as if all other radio stations are just intentionally spilling out lies. I also think that just "Truth" would be a more reasonable term to use than "The Truth". One common definition of Truth is consistency with regard to a certain standard. So implying that there is only one Truth seems absurd. There are many truths you can adhere to. And the other meaning of Truth means adhering to the facts, but can one radio station honestly claim that they are getting more accurate facts than another? And if so, what new fact-finding secret have they discovered, and why are they the only ones who have discovered it? And how have they managed to keep this true-fact finding process all to themselves?

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Firing of Joe Paterno

I disagree with the decision made yesterday by the Penn State Board of Trustees to fire Joe Paterno.

Joe Paterno served Penn State tirelessly and honorably for 61 years. He is a paragon or virtue and is not only the all-time winningest Division-I football Coach, but did so year after year with high graduation rates and little or no recruiting violations. He is now stripped of the right to Coach his one final home game Saturday against Nebraska.

The allegations that he did not do enough to stop the abuse of children by his former assistant Coach are serious ones. If it is true that he knew the details of these crimes and only did the minimum that was required of him, without following up, then he should be ashamed of that behavior and dismissed from his position.

However, he has not been given any chance to defend himself or state what really happened. Someone of such high character should be given the benefit of the doubt, and should not be vilified in the media and then fired in a rush to judgment. People all across the country, who witnessed nothing and do not have all the facts, are calling for everyone to immediately resign in a bloodthirsty witch hunt.

Ignoring the abuse of children shows a lack of moral character. Another thing that shows a lack of moral character is tossing out an icon like a piece of garbage, without a careful review of the evidence.

I agree with my friend Lisa, who stated the whole situation about as well as any I have seen:

As much as I am utterly appalled by the ALLEGATIONS made, I find it equally upsetting that the Board of Trustees knuckled under in such a weak-kneed manner to the collective desire for blood of the court of common opinion and the court of the 24 hr "news" media. Joepa has been tried, convicted and crucified by the evidence of the prosecution only (that's all the Grand jury report is) w/o the opportunity to fully defend himself. It's sad that Joepa doesn't get the benefit of due process but Jerry Sandusky will.

The Vice Chairman of the BOT openly said they didn't have all the facts when making their decision and, when repeatedly pressed by the media, couldn't clearly define what the "best interests" of the University were that they were trying to consider. To me, this just shows a self-interested, ill-considered, pathetic rush to judgement in order to cover their collective derrieres in the eyes of corporate sponsors & donors. They should have just said that in the absence of any proven wrong-doing established through a full, fair and impartial investigation, they could not make a fully considered decision, but that in the interim they were in full agreement with Joepa's decision to retire at season's end.